


Flowers and Lace

by viceversa



Category: The Fall (TV 2013), The X-Files
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, F/F, Flowers and Chocolate, Fluff, Romance, Valentine's Day, this ship needs fluff don't @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 16:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17832227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viceversa/pseuds/viceversa
Summary: Their first Valentine's together is soft and beautiful.





	Flowers and Lace

Dana decided to buy flowers. It was odd, a little off-putting, to be in a florist’s just before Valentine’s day. There was a steady rush of customers around her as she browsed, wide-eyed at the selection available in this tiny shop around the corner. She’d never been on this side of it, the side to woo and please and flatter with romance. She’d done the romance bit where she’d accepted flowers and chocolates and given her thanks in the bedroom.

But picking out flowers for Stella Gibson was a whole new experience.

She preferred to view it as a challenge, not a hinderance. It wasn’t as if she suddenly found the sapphic side of herself at the tender age of forty-seven and was in a panic about it. Dana had loved and appreciated women most of her life. It was the doing so openly, and with another woman, that was a bit different. Not bad different, not by a long shot. But a step to the side of what her usual track in romance was. A new angle.

She’d found many new angles with Stella this past year.

Shaking off that thought, Dana perused the options in front of her. She could take the easy way out, go to the counter and plead for help, find a bouquet that was already put together and suitably red-hearts-sparkle-ribbon Valentine’s. But that didn’t exactly scream Stella to her.

Stella loved… what did Stella love? She loved a glass of red wine after a long day, and the occasional sweet white on a hot summer weekend. She loved it when Dana played with her hair, or when they stayed in and cooked a meal to the best of their combined ability. Stella loved expensive silk as much as she loved soft cotton. She didn’t indulge in extravagance, she owned it, believed she deserved it and she did.

Stella loved flowers.

It was one of the first things Dana had noticed about her apartment, aside from how normal and cozy it was compared to her expensive minimalist fantasy - Stella always had a vase of fresh flowers on her kitchen island.

Pink and green, for half a week. Then she’d come home from work with a new grocery bouquet of bright yellow lilies, then peach roses, then dahlias mixed with baby’s breath. Never any pattern, no usual picks, just presumably whatever had caught her eye, whatever made her feel something.

Feeling. Dana circled the buckets of fresh-cut stems again and tried to trust her gut. What flowers spoke to her? What arrangement of buds and blooms could represent her feelings? None. Flowers couldn’t do that. It was the sentiment behind them. Feelings, Dana. Tap into them.

She started to gather stems, not caring for price but going on gut instinct alone.

She picked up half a dozen pink and white peonies, heavy and fully bloomed, beautiful and feminine. Unapologetic in their existence, in the space they took up. Bright. Bold. Eye catching. Elegant. They reminded her of Stella.

She considered the baby’s breath as a filler, liking how small the buds were in contrast, but when she held them up to the peonies it looked too much like a wedding bouquet.

Dana took a second to consider what she must look like, comparing flowers in a corner alone in the middle of the day, but she realized she didn’t care one bit and refocused. She quickly found some green filler that went well with the colors she had chosen and bought her bouquet, indulging in the white silk ribbon recommended by the florist to bind the arrangement together.

Flowers. And a box of expensive artisan chocolates, bought at Borough Market the weekend before. She’d bought her partner flowers and chocolates for Valentine’s Day, and it felt indescribably right.

-

When she went to Stella’s flat the next evening for dinner, Dana didn’t expect her to have such a strong reaction. She expected a kiss, a thank you and an offer of wine. But Stella’s eyes were misty as Dana said “Happy Valentine’s Day,” and she’d hugged her much tighter than usual. The kiss she received in thanks was, well. Her knees were weak by the end of it.

She retrieved a low vase from under her sink and sat the arrangement on her dining table with what Dana could only describe as reverence, tucking the chocolates aside carefully for later.

Stella Gibson was a romantic who liked Valentine’s Day. Who would’ve thought.

Stella went back to the stovetop, stirring sauce that was only half store-bought.

“I know it’s a little cheesy, chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s,” admitted Dana. She took initiative and poured her own glass of wine from the open bottle on the counter. “Do you like them? I don’t remember you buying peonies before.”

The way Stella looked at her took her breath away, and she swallowed a bit more wine than intended.

“They’re _lovely_.”

Dana blushed, from the wine or the tone in her voice, and was internally relieved she hadn’t somehow overstepped. They had been doing this thing of Friday dinner, weekends spent together, for the better part of a year now. They were both content with their independence, needing space and time to handle their stressful and demanding jobs.

In the last few weeks, Dana started to realized she needed Stella just as much, and wondered what it would be like to live with her.

This wasn’t a casual relationship by any means, like friends with benefits or just for fun. It had started as most great romances do - a professional consult over a dead body.

Dana had impressed Stella with her out-of-the-box theories surrounding the case, interested her with an American accent, attracted her with red hair and a fast wit. Dana chuckled to herself over her wineglass as she watched Stella pour pasta in the now boiling water. She thought she’d been making a friend when Stella had given her the business card with her personal number written on the back, but that first meeting for drinks had ended in a chaste kiss and a blush that lasted through the weekend.

And yet Dana called her again, this time dinner and drinks, then a show and drinks, and finally takeout and drinks at Dana’s small flat, and a deep kiss goodbye the morning after.

It hadn’t been easy. Their independence and stressful jobs were not always compatible, and it had taken work to open up to another person after…after why she left the States.

But it was easy, in a way, because there was a mutual recognition and respect between them. Working in male dominated fields, having seen the horror and the worst of humanity on a daily basis. Beaten down, built back up. Isolated. Strong. Stronger together.

“Taste this.” Stella offered her the wooden spoon she’d been stirring the sauce with.

“Mmm. Needs more salt.”

“Does it really?” Stella tasted it herself.

“I don’t really know, that’s just what people normally say. Tastes good.”

They’d been doing this more and more often too. The nice dinners at restaurants were quickly forgotten in favor of cooking and takeout.

“I did get you something, for today,” Stella admitted. The steam from the pasta made her hair a little frizzy, and Dana was distracted by how good it looked on her.

“Oh?”

“Yes. But it’s a surprise.”

They shared a smile, interrupted only by the timer for the pasta. Dana joined Stella in the rest of the preparation, dancing around each other, draining, scooping, turning off the burners. Stella set the salad she’d made earlier on the table, and Dana followed with their wine glasses.

Valentine’s dinner was accompanied with classical music playing softly from Stella’s stereo, filling easy silences between anecdotes about their week.

-

“Oh, Stella,” Dana sighed, sitting up on the bed as Stella entered her bedroom.

Stella stood in front of her, dressed in what Dana could only describe as something from a Victoria Secret runway, minus the wings.

The whole ensemble radiated elegant and sexy, matching the person who wore it, and Dana couldn’t take her eyes away. Sheer fabric edged in lace, all in the softest baby blue that complimented Stella perfectly. Her fingers itched to explore the contrast of skin and delicate fabric before her.

Her eyes explored her Valentine’s present from top to bottom and back again, taking in the sheer thigh high stockings, attached with garters to high-waisted panties that teased her with strategic lace overlay. She glimpsed a barely-there bra from behind the lace edges of a matching robe. It was classic and modern, simple and elegant, and it looked gorgeous on Stella.

She could’ve worn a burlap sack, or nothing at all, and still been as beautiful. This was just a bonus, and Dana felt hot the longer she looked.

Dana wondered how it would feel on her skin as she unwrapped her, or kissed her through the lace, or rubbed her cheek against the fabric until Stella went wild with the sensation. She thought about how great the outfit would look on the floor.

Upon second glance, which turned into a stare, she noticed that the fabric shimmered slightly in the low light as Stella shifted to put her hand on her hip. She looked like magic.

Dana’s silence went on just long enough for Stella to be amused. Finally meeting her eyes, Dana rose from the bed and approached her present. Stella’s raised eyebrow and smirk from being so thoroughly eye-fucked made her smile.

“God, you’re gorgeous,” Dana breathed. She could see Stella relax just barely, betraying her nervousness, and her heart swelled at the thought. “You’re always gorgeous.”

Not yet touching, Dana gently grazed the backs of her fingers to Stella’s jaw, reverent at the woman standing before her.

“I love you.”A whispered admission, existing on a breath between them, sealed with a kiss.

-

“You know, Stella. I didn’t think you’d be so…”

“So what?”

“Romantic. For Valentine’s day. It’s just a day, after all.”

Stella turned on her side under the sheet, trying to make out Dana’s face in the almost darkness of her bedroom.

“You bought me flowers. And chocolate. Which I have yet to eat, by the way.”

“And?” Dana teased. She brought her closer, running a hand under the soft cotton sleep shirt Stella had put on after their bath.

“I think it’s nice, to have a day like this. An excuse, a special occasion.”

“You’re soft.”

“Proudly,” Stella replied, dragging Dana’s hand up and kissing it in the dark, holding it between them on the bed. “Happy I have someone to be soft with.”

“Just someone?”

“Never just anything, my dear.”

Dana got comfortable, which was so easy in Stella’s bed, and was just drifting off when Stella tightened the grasp on her hand.

“Dana?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m about to get sappy. Because I’m soft and it’s Valentine’s Day.”

Dana returned the hold on her hand with reassuring pressure. “I expect nothing less.”

A faint tremble ran through Stella, shaking the bed just so. It still ached to be vulnerable, and no one else could feel it like Dana did.

“Dana, you warm me like the sun, even on the cloudiest days, and I want you to know that I love you too.”

Stella’s lilting words, half whispered and wholly sincere, settled over Dana like a balm. She gave up on the unnecessary distance between them and gathered Stella into her arms, kissing her once and holding her tightly.

They fell asleep entwined on Valentine’s Day, basking in the sentiment and love the holiday afforded them in the bleak midwinter outside.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to the anon on tumblr who inspired this piece! also thanks to @trainwreckweather for her input on Stella's outfit ;D


End file.
